Walking
tours
Walks on a variety of themes are offered by Paris
Walks (telephone number: (01) 4809 2140, fax number: (01) 4243
7551, including Hemingway’s Paris, The
Village of Montmartre, The Marais Circuit
and many more. The Marais Circuit departs every
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, Hemingway’s
Paris every Friday and the Village of Montmartre
every Wednesday and Sunday. Tours depart from various métro
stations, which are listed on the website, last approx two hours
and cost €10.
Details of most tours are in the weekly Pariscope
magazine. Tour providers and tourist guides are also listed
in the English language guide Paris for You and
is produced by the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau and can
be collected from Tourist Information Offices.
Bus
Tours
The Balabus is an ordinary city bus that is marked
Bb on the front. It operates from stops marked Balabus
from mid April to the end of September, passing key sights between
the Grand Arche de la Défense and the Gare de Lyon. Further
details can be obtained from the métro stations.
Several companies offer coach tours of Paris, with Les
Cars Rouges (telephone number: (01) 5395 3953), using distinctive
red London double-decker buses. Tickets cost €22, purchased
on the bus or at tourist offices. There are 9 stops at main tourist
attractions and a recorded commentary in English. A trip around
the whole route takes approx 2 hours 15 minutes. Passengers can
get on and off at will and tickets are valid for two days.
L’Open
Tour hop-on hop-off buses (telephone number: (01) 4266 5656)
operate daily throughout the year, offering 4 different routes with
running commentaries in English and French, passing all the major
tourist sights in Paris. One and two day passes cost €24 and
€27 respectively and are available from the tourist offices,
RATP offices and also from some hotels and travel agencies. Buses
run every ten to 15 minutes 1000-1800 hrs April-October and every
25-30 minutes 0930-1600 hrs November-March.
Minibus
Tours
A good alternative to the big bus tours are tours and run by minibus.
Minibus may access sites that large coaches may not. Several companies
offer minibus tours around Paris, with Paris
Trip (telephone number: (01) 4212 8672), using air-conditioned
minivans. City tours cost run from €42 (for a two hours Orientation
City Tour including pick-up and return to the hotel) up to €85
(including lunch at the Eiffel Tower and a one hour cruise down
the river). Tours are also available in different languages.
Boat Tours
The city’s bâteaux-mouches and vedettes are a popular
and instantly recognisable feature of the River Seine.
Many companies offer cruises with some including lunch or dinner,
including Vedettes
de Paris (telephone number: (01) 4418 0803, fax number: (01)
4705 7453), Les
Vedettes du Pont-Neuf (telephone number: (01) 4633 9838, fax
number: (01) 4329 8619) and Bâteaux
Parisiens (telephone number: (01) 4411 3344, fax number: (01)
4556 0788). A basic sightseeing tour costs €9-10 and lasts
one hour. Departure points are at various stops along the banks
of the Seine.
Bicycle Tours
Various maps and cycle guides (available at tourist offices, bookshops
or bike-hire outlets) detail cycle routes in Paris. In addition,
there are also routes in the Bois de Boulogne,
the Bois de Vincennes and a popular Sunday trip
along the River Seine, which is closed to cars
1000-1600 hrs.
Paris
à Vélo, C’est Sympa!, 37 boulevard Bourdon
(tel: (01) 4887 6001), offers a variety of three-hour bicycle tours
for €32.50 including Heart of Paris, Paris
Contrasts, Paris at Dawn and Unusual
Paris, as well as Paris by Night tours
during the summer months. Those travelling in groups can book day-long
cycling tours to Versailles or Paris Guinguettes.
Tours depart from the shop and the price includes bicycle hire and
insurance. The company also rents bicycles at a rate of €12.50
per 24 hours or €24 for a whole weekend and €59 per week.
Excursions for Half a Day
Château de Versailles
No sooner had Louis XIV set eyes on his finance minister’s
château at Vaux-le-Victomte, than he decided to build a larger
and better one. The result is one of the three most visited monuments
in France. Construction began in 1664, continuing until Louis XIV’s
death in 1715. Much of the palace can only be visited with a guide,
with the notable exception of the 73m (240ft) Galerie des
Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), where the Treaty of Versailles
was signed, effectively bringing World War I to an end. It is worth
queuing for a guided tour, if only to recapture the ritualistic
atmosphere of the reign of the Sun King, whose actions were considered
as miraculous as the movements of the sun itself. The honoured elite
among the 20,000 courtiers and royal ministers were obliged to relocate
to the palace and observed these banal rituals with awe.
Entry to the château state apartments (telephone number: (01)
3083 7800; website: www.chateauversailles.fr)
costs €7.50 . There is the option of a one-hour guided visit
of the King’s Chamber, which costs €4 for the audio tour.
The chateau and gardens are set in a landscaped park, designed by
Le Nôtre, which is open daily, except during
bad weather, from 0700 hrs in summer and 0800 hrs in winter until
sunset. Admission to the park is free, although entry to the formal
gardens costs €3, free during the winter. There are also guided
tours of the garden for an extra €5.
The château itself is open Tuesday to Sunday 0900-1730 hrs
(until 1830 from April to October). The grounds are so large that
a little train chugs from the palace to the former royal love nests,
the Grand and Petit Trianons (open daily 1200-1730
hrs, until 1830 hrs from April to October).
The Italianate Grand Trianon was built in 1687,
for Louis XIV to enjoy the company of Madame de Maintenon. Napoléon
also had a penchant for this building, which is on a somewhat more
human scale than the château, and stayed there with Marie-Louise.
Louis XV had Gabriel build the Petit Trianon in
the 1760s, for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. Admission costs
€5 to the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon combined. The château
(and everything on site) is free to everyone on the first Sunday
of the month from November to March.
Versailles is located 23km (14 miles) west of Paris and is easily
accessible from central Paris on the RER line C5 to Versailles-Rive
Gauche.
For a Whole Day
Giverny
Monet
lived in countrified Giverny, situated 80km (50 miles) northwest
of Paris, from 1883 until his death in 1926. The house, in which
he painted his last, vast water lily canvas, is open to the public
as Musée Claude Monet. Although the house
retains much of its charm, the artist’s studio is now a large
and over-commercialised gift shop as Monet is, after all, big business.
Although many of the original paintings are now at the Musée
d’Orsay, the inspiration behind them remains here
including the famed water lily pond and Japanese footbridges.
The museum, 84 rue Claude Monet (telephone number: (02) 3251 2821,
fax number: (02) 3251 5418, website: www.fondation-monet.com),
is open from Tuesday to Sunday 0930-1800 hrs (April to October).
Admission prices are €5.50 for the house and garden or €4
for the gardens only.
A few minutes away, in 99 rue Claude Monet, the Musée
d’Art Américain (telephone number: (02) 3251
9465, fax number: (02) 3251 9467, website: www.maag.org),
is a shrine to Monet-influenced American artists, such as Winslow
Homer and Mary Cassatt.
Opening hours are from Tuesday to Sunday 1000-1800 hrs
(April to October) and admission costs €5.50.
By car, visitors should take the A13 runs from Paris to Bonnières
onto the D201 to Giverny. Alternatively, the train
from Gare St-Lazare station goes to Vernon, from where visitors
should take a taxi or bus to Giverny. |
